How Many Megapixels Is the Human Eye?
This article compares human vision to a digital image. Also, find out how many megapixels is the human eye. How much resolution does the human eye have?’ It is better to ask, ‘How many pixels would you need to create an image on a screen large enough to fill your entire visual field and make it look realistic’ than to ask? Life without any detectable pixelation?’ Before driving into the main topic, let’s know what is the resolution.
What is the resolution?
Resolution is not the same as pixels. It is the smallest element of an electronic image that is called a pixel. At the same time, resolution refers to the quality of an image, which is made up of pixels. It describes the fine details of the image and depends on the amount of light, the size of the digital sensors, and how far away it is viewed.
Resolution is also determined by how many pixels are used to create an image, called spatial resolution. If something on the screen goes out of focus, the number of pixels in the video frame remains the same. But the image needs more detail to the eye.
The problem of comparing human vision with a digital image
The comparison of human vision to a digital image is more challenging. Several things could be improved. For example, a digital camera takes one picture at a time while our eyes constantly move, and the brain must make sense of a stream of information to form what we call vision. The image formed by a single eye in a vision is not the one we interpret.
Unlike a camera, elements are obstructing our field of view. For example, we are always looking at our noses. Fortunately, our brains process these things because they are irrelevant and don’t matter.
We also have blind spots, where the optic nerve meets the retina, and no visual information is received. You wouldn’t expect it from a camera because there are no photoreceptors in this area.
In addition to this, people may have refractive errors such as myopia and hyperopia. It is also possible for one to have tetrachromacy, which means one can see more color variations than the average person.
Our fovea is another factor that makes comparing human vision to digital images difficult. The fovea is the part of your retina that provides clear vision. It receives light from the central two degrees of our field of view. It is the area covered by both of your thumbs when held at arm’s length. Color vision and 20/20 vision are only possible within that small area.
Our eyes constantly move, and our brain fills in the details that combine and infer this visual information to create sense images. Therefore, what we see is a processed image.
How Many Megapixels is the Human Eye?
According to scientist and photographer Dr. Roger Clarke, the human eye has a resolution of 576 megapixels. The amount of pixels is enormous compared to the 12 megapixels of an iPhone 7. But what does it mean? Is the human eye similar to a camera?
i. Say Cheese!
A 576-megapixel resolution means to create a screen with an image in which you can’t distinguish individual pixels. You need to pack 576 million pixels into your field of view size. To get his numbers, Dr. Clarke assumed optimal visual acuity across vision; That is, it takes that your eyes are moving around the scene in front of you. But for a single snapshot-length view, the resolution drops to a fraction of that: around 5-15 megapixels.
Because the camera will not accept many flaws in our eyes, we only see high resolution in a minimal area in the center of our vision, called the fovea. Also, we have a blind spot where our optic nerve meets our retina. You move your eyes around a scene to take in more information and correct these imperfections in your visual system.
ii. Wrong Question
However, the megapixel resolution of your eyes is the wrong question. The eye is not a camera lens, taking snapshots to store in your memory bank. It’s much like a detective, gathering clues from your surroundings and then taking them back to the brain to put the pieces together and create a complete picture. Of course, there is a screen resolution where our eyes can no longer distinguish pixels — and according to some, it already exists — but when it comes to our everyday visual experience, it’s too easy to talk in megapixels.
How many pixels can appreciate our vision?
According to Dr. Roger Clarke, a screen must have a density of 576 megapixels to encompass our entire field of view.
However, this question has a problem because our eyes work differently than cameras. Our eyes move quickly, taking in a lot of visual information processed by the brain into detailed images. The brain combines what your two eyes see to create a higher-resolution image than the photoreceptors in the retina can do alone.
In our eyes, not all visual information is digested equally. We only digest information from our fovea. Therefore, we would have trouble interpreting an image on a 576-pixel screen.
We can see about 7 megapixels in our fovea range. It is roughly estimated that we only need 1 megapixel more information to render an image in the rest of the field of view.
Also read, Can Electric Eel Kill Human?
Conclusion
You cannot compare human vision to a digital image because the human eye does not have pixels. Our visual system is different from the camera. Humans see an image that we put together with our eyes and brain. This is not necessarily a reality.
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